[Editorial] Joint tribute to Korean A-bomb victims by leaders of S. Korea, Japan is only first step

Posted on : 2023-05-24 16:51 KST Modified on : 2023-05-24 16:51 KST
Powerful though the image of the two leaders laying flowers at the memorial to killed Koreans was, there was still no apology for Japan’s colonial rule over Korea
President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee of South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and first lady Yuko Kishida of Japan lay flowers at the memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bombings of Japan located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 21. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee of South Korea and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and first lady Yuko Kishida of Japan lay flowers at the memorial to Korean victims of the atomic bombings of Japan located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 21. (Yonhap)

At the time of Japan’s World War II defeat in 1945, it had around 2.4 million Korean residents — people who had gone there either for work or through forced conscription. Roughly 140,000 of them were living in Hiroshima, a southern logistics base where the Second General Army command was located.

On the morning of Aug. 6 that year, the US military dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. According to Korea Atomic Bombs Victim Association statistics tallied in 1972, around 50,000 Koreans were exposed to the blast; roughly 30,000 of them died.

Founded in 1967 in South Korea, the association continued to demand treatment and compensation from the Japanese government. In 1970, a memorial was raised under the direction of the Hiroshima chapter of the Korean Residents Union in Japan, also known as Mindan.

The inscription on it read, “In the 5,000-year history of the [Korean] nation, there has never been an event as sad or painful as what befell the souls who rest here. It was through the Pacific War that the Korean people keenly experienced suffering without a country, and the culmination of this was the tragedy of the atomic bomb.”

Last Sunday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan paid respects at that monument alongside President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea. It was the first time in history that the two countries’ leaders had done so together.

The memorial has been the subject of neglect from Japan. Initially, Tokyo refused to allow it to be raised in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It ended up being placed outside, and it was not moved into the park until 1999.

Among Japan’s prime ministers, only Keizo Obuchi — famous for his joint declaration with then- President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea in 1998 — would present flowers after learning about the memorial’s 1999 relocation into the park.

South Korean governments have been similarly neglectful. Yoon’s visit to pay respects was the first ever by a South Korean president. Kishida reportedly proposed the joint gesture while visiting South Korea on May 7.

It was a brief event, amounting to a presentation of flowers and a 10-second moment of silence. But even that may have offered some solace to the Korean atomic bomb victims in their sadness and suffering, while sharing a bit of warmth in the hearts of Zainichi Koreans.

In past years, key officials in Japan have rarely if ever visited the memorial ceremonies held in Hiroshima every Aug. 6. Kishida’s decision is likely to be remembered for a long time.

But the joint visit does not paper over the fact that in restoring their shuttle diplomacy, South Korea and Japan hastily patched over the matter of compensating forced labor mobilization victims, without any apology from Japan for its colonial rule in Korea.

The South Korean presidential office has tried its hardest to play up the significance of “Korean forced labor victims being included among the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.” But the memorial visit cannot reasonably be taken as an “indirect apology.”

In Japan, the atomic bomb explosions are viewed as a case of Japan being victimized by absolute evil. Even if it claims to be offering solace to the Koreans who were also victimized, it can be no true apology without a clear acknowledgment of responsibility for the reason behind that: Japan’s colonial rule over Korea.

Kishida’s remarks still sound like he is dancing around the real issue.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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